The Prince and the Player by Tia Louise

Blurb: Cinderella plays dirty…

Two brothers: One a crown prince; one a “playboy prince.”
Two sisters: One a con artist and card shark; one a pickpocket and petty thief.
One twisted plot for revenge.

When Grand Duke Reginald Winchester is exiled in disgrace, he vows he won’t go down without a fight. Crossing paths with Zee Wilder and her younger sister Ava at a gambling resort in Miami is the stroke of luck he seeks.

Zee is the counterfeit courtier in Reggie’s plan to humiliate Rowan, the controlled heir who kicked him out of the kingdom. In return, the sisters get a permanent spot on Easy Street.

If only Zee didn’t keep finding herself in a clutch with Cal, Rowan’s playboy younger brother. Ava’s no help, as she finds quiet walks in the moonlight discussing poetry and leadership with the brooding, future king irresistible. Even more irresistible is kissing his luscious lips…

The whole plan is falling apart, and neither sister is sure she wants to stop it.

4 Stars

This is a fair tale retelling and while Cinderella is my absolute LEAST favorite fairy tale (Actually, I hate that fairy tale), this book was pretty good.  The ending really threw me becasue it had a happy ending and a cliffhanger all at the same time and I don’t even know how to feel about it honestly.  The  story itself was really well written but there are some things in it that I found inconsistent and unbelievable.

The back story of Zelda is one of the things that I found unbelievable.  I don’t think it went into enough depth in the back story, I think that more could have been done for me to have that connection.  Even with reading the prologue about her being a grifter, it still didn’t connect me to her being that kind of person. I didn’t see her as deceptive, at all, so that was a bit hard for me to believe.

Her sister on the other hand was totally transparent I felt.  She was a sweet side character. She was someone who is young and inexperienced, I suppose sheltered would almost be how I would describe her.  I don’t know, she seemed kind of naive to me honestly. And for somebody who was a victim of abuse, the naivety was kind of annoying to me.  As a victim of abuse myself, and knowing lots of people who have been victims of abuse, naivety is not really something that comes along with that territory.  I mean, I didn’t dislike her.  She was just kind of one dimensional in that aspect.  Maybe I’m reading too much into it.  It could just be me.  Who am I to say how anyones personal experiences should be handled?

The two princes were everything I expected them to be.  Confident, domineering, and a bit cocky.  Masculine is a word that comes to mind when thinking of them.  The story was good. The sex was great.  And thats probaly one of the things that I enjoyed the most was the physical connection the characters had with each other.

So yeah, I would recommend this to anyone who likes this genre.